Christmas past with football in mind. The A Team

Christmas at the Texan Hargenrater's

Who is this?

Happy thanksgiving

We co-hosted thanksgiving dinner with Choon Ping and Pei-Sun this year since they are renovating their house. Preparation work started on Wednesday night. We made some cranberry sauce, corn bread (both for eating, and also for the stuffing), pumpkin pie, and also brined the turkey. The brine solution is a super saturated solution with brown sugar and salt, with some herbs and oranges. The brine is suppose to help keep the turkey really moist and flavorful while it gets roasted on Thursday.

On Thursday morning, we cooked the stuffing (corn bread, fennel, and italian sausages), and let the mixture cool down before stuffing it in the turkey. Then Pei-Sun cooked her famous honey glazed ham. We then have to wash the turkey off of all the brining solution, and dried the turkey before putting it in the oven for 4 hours at 325F. We basted the turkey every hour with chicken stock and turkey stock. For side dishes, we have a green bean casserole. This year we had a fancier version - we started off with fresh green beans and mushrooms instead of canned beans. We also made some mashed potatoes, and very delicious gravy to accompany the potatoes from the drippings from the turkey. The Pilsbury Doughboy also helped out with some buttery cresent rolls.

We finally had an excuse to open the gigantic bottle of champagne our caterer for our wedding gave us. Farzad had quite a blast drinking his bubblies... Other non alcohol drinkers enjoyed some sparkling apple cider that Farzad brought over, or home made lemonade using lemons from Choon Ping and Pei-Sun's lemon tree.

After dinner we had some wonderful desserts - Cammy brought over an apple pie, Donald and Sandy brought a tiramisu, and the pumpkin pie with cool whip. Yum! Everyone was pretty stuffed. Later we played a game of Pictionary, and of course, no surprise there, the girls won :)

Choonping is carving the turkey.

Look how plum and juicy the turkey is:

The sweet and flavorful ham:

Choon Ping all pooped out after the party:

The 1st visitors to Texas! Way to go Barb and Jim

The apple dosn't fall too far from the tree...

Pot calling the kettle black

I would say im surprised but im not. Now i know why you lost the weight!

I was richard simmons!!

hopefullly you can see the whole thing now.. for your entertainment

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Halloween overkill

This person on upper Chestnut definitely has Halloween problems stemming from childhood trauma. At dark, it is all lit up and scary organ music plays from two huge speakers on the porch.

Siegel's pumpkin

A little credit to Diane, a little credit to John, a little credit to Dawn, and a lot of credit to Q3. This will not be appealing to Bob as there is no blood, no brain matter, and no puke, but we like it.

When pumpkins drink!

Pumpkin Carving

What to carve what to carve?

Meeku and Rafiki...
Matt and my pumpkin
Derrick's pumpkin

Amy's pumpkin
The artists with their jack o lanterns

Nangka

Choon Ping and Pei-Sun brought over a nangka (jackfruit) today....

At the store, the checkout clerk thought it was a durian.... and charged them $1.49/lb instead of $1.99/lb....

Look at Pei-Sun cutting up the delicious fruit... We all enjoyed it very much.... It's my first time eating nangka in the US....

Its pumpkin time

Why does Rafiki think he can get away with anything?

Mendocino

This past weekend Matt and I went on a last trip before the summer ends. We went to a coastal town up north called Mendocino. The scenic view of the Pacific Ocean on US1.

We stayed at a very cute Bed & Breakfast - Whitegate Inn. The building was built in 1883, and carries the old time charm and elegance. One can get a good view of the Pacific coast from the garden on a good non foggy day.

Our room is called the 'Enchanted Cottage', and it has a private deck and entrance to the room through the French doors.

Here are several pictures of the flowers found in the garden.